d Sweeter Woman Ne’er Drew Breath 
     
    
   
   
    
     joyed his own defeat enormously, but 
     
     Thomas Gordon was ashamed of being 
     
     thus drawn out of himself, and for a week 
     
     afterwards confined his remarks to 
     
     “ Yes ” and “ No,” or, at the outside, to 
     
     a brief statement that a change in the 
     
     weather was brewing. 
     
    

    
     Janet never talked on matters of 
     
     church and state; such she plainly consid- 
     
     ered to be far beyond a woman’s prov- 
     
     ince. But she listened with lurking in— 
     
     terest in her eyes while Thomas and Eric 
     
     pelted each other with facts and statistics 
     
     and opinions, and on the rare occasions 
     
     when Eric scored a point she permitted 
     
     herself a sly little smile at her brother’s 
     
     expense. 
     
    

    
     Of Neil, Eric saw but little. The Ital- 
     
     ian boy avoided him, or if they chanced 
     
     to meet passed him by with sullen, down- 
     
     cast eyes. Eric did not trouble himself 
     
     greatly about Neil; but Thomas Gordon, 
     
     understanding the motive which had led 
     
     Neil to betray his discovery of the orchard 
     
    
   
   
    
     I75